German policeman sentenced for death of man he met on cannibal website

A Dresden court has sentenced a former policeman to eight years and seven months in prison for killing a man he met on an internet site devoted to cannibalism fetischisms. Detlev G. had appealed an earlier verdict of eight years and six months.

He was found guilty of ‘murder and disturbing the peace of the dead’ – police had found the chopped-up body of a man he met on a fetishist website for cannibalism buried in his garden in 2013.

Dresden police said Detlev G. and his victim met through an online chat room on the website ‘Zambian meat’. They had had intensive contact via email, text messages, but also over the telephone and arranged a meeting for November 4, 2013. The victim was said to have wanted to be “slaughtered”.

After meeting at the central train station in Dresden, they went to the accused’s address, a bed and breakfast near the Czech border, and agreed on the killing, the prosecution said.

According to German media, the defense team had argued the victim had hanged himself. There was no evidence that any act of cannibalism had taken place.

Detlev G. told police he caused a life threatening injury to the victim with a knife, which also caused the death of the victim. Afterwards he chopped the body of the victim into pieces and buried the body parts in the grounds.

The investigation recalled the case of Armin Meiwes, dubbed the “Cannibal of Rothenburg”, who killed and ate a man who had advertised on the Internet for someone to kill him “and leave no trace”. Meiwes, who filmed the act, received a life sentence in 2006.